Independent writers are reporting in FaceBook groups a new culling of their 5-star reviews is underway on Amazon. Other reviews are blocked before they even appear on the book’s page. Yes, that’s indie authors’ 5-stars again. I guess if it happened to J.K. Rowling, there’d be a batch of 5-star corporate lawyers knocking on Amazon’s door within minutes.
Best-selling author and marketing guru Matt Dawson addressed this on his YouTube channel Continue reading
Well, that’s been a weird few weeks. Groundhog Day all over again every morning. “What day is it, today? Is it yesterday or tomorrow?”
The writing community seems to have fallen into two camps. Some were fired up, churning out thousands of words Continue reading
I look out the window at the storm-wracked forest beyond the rainsoaked fields and long for Spring.
My personal “writing place” is my garden patio in the sunshine with rock music on my headphones and coffee within reach. Sitting in my attic office with artificial lighting to compensate for the all-day, gray-sky dullness outside is not even a poor second best.
Ah, well. As the poet said, Continue reading
Wow, time flies!
I am SO glad I renamed this an “occasional blog” a while ago.
Luckily, the world ducked Father Time’s scythe as December slipped into January, despite Middle East issues, although China’s upcoming New Year of the Rat (starts January 25, 2020) is plagued with spreading Coronavirus problems and Australia is still beset with weather-related woes.
Last year, I planned to be touring China about Continue reading
Can you hear that?
No, you probably can’t. But I can.
Tinnitus: ringing or buzzing in the ears.
That definition just does not do it justice in my case.
A concentration-shattering, perpetual whistling, more like. A shrill, hissing, sibilant, headache-inducing screeching that eases off to a whispering susurration at times.
Or maybe you can hear it. Continue reading
It’s a sunny day here in Luxembourg. The heatwave has eased, the rain has stopped, and it’s perfect weather for sitting out on the patio and pouring thoughts and words into my laptop.
I started looking through my Scrivener folder of “Unfinished Works“. More accurately, it should be called, “Started and Stalled“.
Some authors struggle to find ideas. I’m of the other type: story ideas constantly tumble through my mind, especially when I’m in the middle of redrafting a story. (I HATE redrafting.) So I type out a few notes in my “Unfinished Works” folder and get back to the task in hand.
(It also happens when I’m swimming, which is a terrible time to get an idea as my iPhone is not waterproof!)
Every now and again, I look through my Unfinisheds to see if there’s anything worth developing. It’s usually an unfulfilling task. I find sketches, first lines or paragraphs, or even whole chapters that lead nowhere I can follow – yet. Worse, I find the plots of movies and novels released AFTER I noted down the original idea. I really wish I had one of those author mind-reading gadgets! Continue reading
Here we go again, sliding past the year’s halfway point – the longest day (or the shortest day if you’re Down Under).
The Earth just clocked-up another 470 million km (282 million miles) – a half orbit of the sun – since a cold and snowy December 31st. And what’s changed? Continue reading
Greetings from Luxembourg, where the early morning snow has melted away (just like 2019 is doing).
(The photo is of the city looking beautiful in deep winter: we only had a scattering of snowflakes this morning and this looks much prettier.)
Wake up call!
Almost twenty percent of the year is already lost in the in the mists of memory. We should all make the most of the remaining months before they slip away too.
So do I take my own advice? Er… Does anyone? Continue reading
It’s been a while since I blogged. No, it wasn’t the longest coffee break ever. To be honest, I’ve had enough medical, legal, and dentistry distractions to set me back more than a few months, but I’m bouncing back!
Anyway, I had to put my writing and publication on hold, and build up a backlog of analytical responses for my online crit groups. (Apologies, fellow critters.)
But what a time to climb back in the saddle! Continue reading
In my previous post, I dangled some “click bait” about how I was over-committed, then offered only a cliffhanger. My bad.
Seriously, I found myself in a time bind over the last few months… Continue reading
